Computing devices, such as laptop computers, netbook computers, or other such devices, often implement power management techniques in order to reduce the amount of power consumed by those devices over time, for instance, during periods of user inactivity. In some approaches, such techniques may be used only when the device is operating on battery power, or, in other approaches, may be used regardless of the power source being used (e.g., battery or AC power).
In current power management techniques, an operating system (OS) of a computing device may use timer and/or threshold values as triggers for performing power management activities. For example, an OS may use default or user selected timer values to measure periods of inactivity, after which, the OS may perform one or more power management activities In other situations, an OS may use threshold values, such as battery level thresholds, as triggers for performing power management activities. However, because such approaches require action by an OS to implement such power management activities, power management activities cannot be performed when the computing system is in a non-OS aware state, such as a low power (e.g., suspend) state.